Where to buy soapmaking supplies in USA?

[Aleja]

Where do you guys buy your soapmaking supplies? I'm in the Boston area and I started soaping when I was back in Colombia. Im trying to get back to it now that I'm settled in the USA, it seems harder to find affordable, good quality stuff over here. But maybe I just dont know where to buy.
I apologize if this has been discussed before, just point me in the right direction. TIA.

 

[amd]

Have you read through the shopping recommendations forum? (That's also where this thread should be, reported it to have admin move it). It depends on what you are looking for. There's a number of suppliers that also carry almost everything.

 

[Aleja]

Have you read through the shopping recommendations forum? (That's also where this thread should be, reported it to have admin move it). It depends on what you are looking for. There's a number of suppliers that also carry almost everything.

Thank you, will do that, Im not very good at navigating through websites and forums, I'll find my way to the right place Haha. Thank you very much.

 

[Arimara]

For lye, if you don't want to buy from Amazon, I suggest The Lye Guy. He's located around Syracuse, NY I think but the shipping would be much easier to deal with than if you orders from Essential Depot, which is in Florida. As for fragrances. I've had good luck with Nuture Soaps, which is based close enough for me to get my packages on the faster side, and Save on Scents, whom I can actually go to the physical location and pick my order up. I also like Camden Grey but that is $16 shipping depending on what I am getting.

 

[amd]

Here's the link for the shopping recommendations forum:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/forums/shopping-recommendations.30/

I started typing out some general recommendations, but overwhelmed myself by who does what.... it really depends on how much/what you're buying. That said, here's who I use:
Lye: Essential Depot (I usually wait for it to come on sale and buy 32lbs at a time)
Oils: Mostly Soapers Choice as I buy in bulk and can coordinate for better shipping prices. Occasionally if I am only needing a bit of something and am already placing an order at Wholesale Supplies Plus I will order there, but it is more expensive.
Fragrances: Natures Garden, Wholesale Supplies Plus, Candle Science, Micas & More (group buy, orders the first week of the month, order arrives third week of the month)
Color: Micas & More

Others will chime in with more recommendations for Fragrance and Color. Soapmaking tools I usually purchase locally, my husband makes my molds and cutters. I use amazon for special shape molds.

 

[IrishLass]

For oils, your local grocery store and/or Costco and/or Walmart and/or health-food store are suprisingly good places to look for things like coconut oil, olive oil, HO sunflower oil, HO safflower oil and castor oil. When I first started out, I bought all my lye and my oils locally- my lye from Lowe's, coconut oil and lard from Walmart, castor oil at my local health-food store (they sell it in 32 oz bottles there for a really good price), olive oil from Costco. Thirteen years in and I still buy my olive oil from Costco, my lard from Walmart or from my local grocery store, and my castor oil from my local health-food store, but I order my lye, my coconut oil, my PKO flakes, babassu oil, rice bran oil, cocoa butter, mango butter, etc...in bulk online. These are some of the suppliers I like to use (all are very reputable):

Essential Depot for lye
Columbus Foods/Soaper's Choice for oils and butters
Brambleberry for lye, oils and butters, colorants, and FO's
Oregon Trails Soap for FO's and mango butter (she has some of the nicest mango butter I've ever bought)
Wholesale Supplies plus for oils, butters, colorants, and FOs
Majestic Mountain Sage for oils, butters, waxes, flavor oils, colorants, and packaging, and FOs
TKB Trading for waxes, packaging, and colorants
Liberty Naturals for EOs
Nurture Soap for colorants and FOs
Nature's Garden Candles for FOs
Elements Bath & Body for flavor oils, packaging, and FOs
Bitter Creek for FOs and vanilla stabilizer
Daystar for FOs
Soapalooza for FOs
SweetCakes for FOs
Rustic Escentuals for FOs
Save On Scents for packaging and FOs


IrishLass

 

[dixiedragon]

Might be worth while for you to google "soap supplies in Boston" and "candle suppies in Boston", to see if you have anything local or local-ish.

Brambleberry has this great kit for beginners:
https://www.brambleberry.com/in-the...r-beginners---relaxing-lavender/CB703124.html

But you may already have those things. I think most of us have to do most of our shopping online.

 

[earlene]

Where do you guys buy your soapmaking supplies? I'm in the Boston area and I started soaping when I was back in Colombia. Im trying to get back to it now that I'm settled in the USA, it seems harder to find affordable, good quality stuff over here. But maybe I just dont know where to buy.
I apologize if this has been discussed before, just point me in the right direction. TIA.

Aleja, depending on the recipes and oils you prefer, and your location and proximity to stores, sometimes purchasing from a grocery store or big-box store or a club-type store can be useful as well as the online ordering. I do both. For example, every time I shop for anything, I always check out the prices of oils I can use for soap making. Sometimes there are great sales going on and I can pick up a bargain on an oil I like to use in soap. Sometimes I find great bargains for molds or other utensils I want or need. But it really depends on what's near you and the costs locally on if that would work for you.

Shopping around for bargains is the greatest tip I can give you. I find that some online vendors have periodic sales making prices very affordable. Watching for and taking advantage of those sales has really helped me in terms of deciding which vendor to choose for some supplies, such as lye. And I highly recommend factoring in shipping costs when making your decisions about where to purchase. For me, the bottom line price (including shipping) is most often the deciding factor.

However, vendor reputation is important, too. That's why I like to read reviews online, as well as what people's experience is here with different vendors. If the vendor has a great sale, but a poor reputation, I won't even consider ordering from them.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

These are useful lists, so thank you to those who have been able to contribute. The many choices can make it overwhelming to decide where to order and I would rather spend the time making soap . Since I use oils and lye in relatively small quantities, I buy a lot of what I need locally, or order from reputable sources through Amazon. Amazon delivers most orders to my semi-rural home in 2-3 days versus 2 weeks for some of the traditional suppliers. For some products, I feel better orderimg from a speciality supplier. I have ordered from and been happy with the items I purchased from Brambleberry (clays and plant-based colorants), Wholesale Suppliers (an assortment of things ranging from butters to EOs), Camden Grey (EOs) and Essential Depot (through Amazon, coconut oil and Shea butter). I can buy lye at the local hardware store, but I’m starting to think about orderimg a higher grade because I sometimes have to filter out little flecks of something.

 

[Aleja]

I just wanted to thank you all, I was able to find all the supplies I needed and successfully made my first batch of soap in US soil.
I'll leave a picture here, it's a very simple OO/CO recipe with lavender and lemon EO. I already ordered some FO and micas so I can do more interesting stuff but I was itching to soap so I had to work with what I had.
God bless you all!. Thank you!

 

[Aleja]

I just wanted to thank you all, I was able to find all the supplies I needed and successfully made my first batch of soap in US soil.
I'll leave a picture here, it's a very simple OO/CO recipe with lavender and lemon EO. I already ordered some FO and micas so I can do more interesting stuff but I was itching to soap to O had to work with what I had.
God bless you all!. Thank you!View attachment 39709 View attachment 39709

 

[Nanette]

Very nice!

 

[Kurt]

If I was in Boston I'd be going to Jedwards. Literally less than 15 miles south of Boston in Braintree. Pick up in person to save on shipping and I've yet to find organic prices that are better. Strange no one ever mentions them.

https://bulknaturaloils.com/

 

[shunt2011]

@Kurt - Jedwards has been mentions many times. Unfortunately, comparing prices 1:1 Jedwards has always been much more expensive for me to utilize. I recently compared purchasing the same products from Jedwards and Soapers Choice (not organic) Jedwards was almost 20.00 more expensive due to their much higher shipping.

 

[Kurt]

@Kurt - Jedwards has been mentions many times. Unfortunately, comparing prices 1:1 Jedwards has always been much more expensive for me to utilize. I recently compared purchasing the same products from Jedwards and Soapers Choice (not organic) Jedwards was almost 20.00 more expensive due to their much higher shipping.

I should have clarified, I only buy organic and couldn't find anyone else that could even come close to Jedwards prices for EOs. So even high shipping still makes them a better option for me, even being on the west coast.

I do buy my organic PO, PKO, EVVO, and HOSF from Soapers Choice. Honestly, I don't even think SC had a packing slip on my first order, and of course, I have to melt out the hard oils from the plastic jugs. Their prices should be cheaper as it seemed to be bare minimum from the website to the packaging, or lack thereof. Just four jugs in a crumpled box.

For things like organic castor bean and babassu oil, Jedwards was the best option and truly the only option for me. The babassu oil (such a gorgeous oil) came in a nice firm white pale with snap top, convenient, and reusable. The packaging and info slips for the EOs was impressive.

Anywho, I thought I'd mention it to Aleja as she lives 15 minutes from Jedwards and could avoid all shipping costs, especially for organic EO's but from what I gather most don't buy organic EOs.

Cheerio